The underground economy of solitary confinement
themarshallproject.org
The underground economy of solitary confinement
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Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
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Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#3I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances.
AMA.
I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect something.
Another interesting thing fact -- where I was at, in solitary you could trade your 1-hour of your cell a day for an extra tray of food at either lunch or dinner. Because the guards had to let each person in the solitary block out, one-at-a-time, for an hour, they were lazy and would let you forfeit your one hour out to shower/make a paid phone call/walk around the cell block for extra food. Most people took the extra tray.
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Edit: While this is on the front page, want to raise a bit of awareness about US criminal "justice system" and prisons:
I saw things like this regularly:
https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn.net.au/c567d688cc89f084...
Guards would beat the shit out of you, strip you mostly naked, strap you to a restraint chair and cover your head with a hood, and then wheel you into a back room somewhere and "accidentally forget" about you for +8 hours until you pissed yourself, and then they'd come and laugh at you.
Lots of things I can't unsee from being in there.
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#4[deleted]
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#5I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Can you summarize the experience in thirds? For example, what was the first 30 days like versus the last 30?
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#6I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Do solitary confinement help in correcting illegal/bad/wrong behaviour among prisoners in your opinion?
Seems to me that it can only breed resentment and detachment.
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#7I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Do solitary confinement help in correcting illegal/bad/wrong behaviour among prisoners in your opinion? Seems to me that it can only breed resentment and detachment.
No, not at all.
The thing I think most law-abiding/normal people don't understand about the types of people in prisons is that they are almost exclusively habitual offenders.
Even in the US, which is heavily punitive instead of rehabilitative, you have to have run-ins with the law a number of times before you are sentenced to serve time, rather than probation or a halfway-house etc.
From my experiences, ~90% of people I saw during my time in jail and prison were coming in and out, constantly being arrested. There's no desire on their part to change, they're a lost cause.
For the tiny handful of people that genuinely do want to have a normal life and not go back to prison, our justice system is awful. No, solitary is not good for that.
You need supportive + rehabilitative programs. They won't solve everything, but for the small number of people who want to get out of the system, they need an honest-to-god out and chance at living.
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#8I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Can you summarize the experience in thirds? For example, what was the first 30 days like versus the last 30?
The first two weeks were very difficult. You have to sort of mentally come to peace with the fact that you're shut in this tiny room and you can't leave. It feels very claustrophobic and if you're the type that has anxiety disorders you will probably have to ward off panic attacks.
After the first two weeks, time started to slowly speed up, and the days all sort of blurred together. Thankfully I was able to get a newspaper every day, and a book every now and then, and so I just read every word of the newspaper (even the ads) for something to do, and slept a lot.
I think I handled it better than a lot of people would have, as I'm sort of introverted by nature. There's research on solitary confinement permanently harming mental health, but I think I got lucky on that one.
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#9This article reminded me of this economics paper from a former World Ware 2 prisoner of war describing the "market economy" that formed in the POW camps.
http://icm.clsbe.lisboa.ucp.pt/docentes/url/jcn/ie2/0POWCamp...
It's fascinating because it describes:
- Open outcry markets
- Exchange rates
- N dimensional preference spaces
- Collapsing money supplies
- Market shocks
All in plain English and using specific examples from the camps.
Highly recommend it especially if you (like me on both counts) have an Econ degree and/or work in finance.
Re: The underground economy of solitary confinement
#10I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Thank you for sharing your experience and bringing these things to light. As Dostoevsky said, you can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners. We are not a free people when we live under the threat of being out into a prison system as barbaric as the one we have.